Category Archives: Isabela Island

The week before last, I took one of the small 16-passenger motorboats making its daily trip over to Isabela Island, where I spent a week. What should have been a two-and-a-half hour boat ride turned into a five-hour boat ride after we ran out of gas about a half hour away from Puerto Villamil, our final destination. The small fibra, as the boats are called, was full of people and the sea was rough. Needless to say, as the boat bobbed up and down uncontrollably, a number of us began losing our lunch. We were uncomfortably close to the waves crashing along the rough volcanic coastline of Isabela and were missing five lifejackets. At the beginning, it was unclear if someone was coming with gasoline, but then after 45 minutes of waiting, a motorboat arrived to save the day. The fibra had no lights, so the boat escorted us into the small port. It was dark and the tide was low, but eventually we arrived safely.